A People’s History of the United States

"Zinn’s book has sold over two million copies. It’s probably the most popular work of nonfiction that any radical has written in American history. It’s a history of what he calls the “1%” and the “99%”. It’s an interpretation of all of American history, from the Native Americans before European settlement all the way up to 9/11 in the last edition. In his telling, workers, blacks, women, Native Americans, Chicanos and other groups struggled for higher wages, truer democracy and sometimes a different kind of society entirely, but they keep getting defeated. Zinn’s book has been very popular with Occupy Wall Street people and among American radicals generally. I’m critical of it myself: I think it’s a simplistic propagandistic understanding of American history. Somehow the 99% always lose, even though they’re the great majority. But nevertheless it’s been an influential book among American leftists since its publication 30 years ago. The argument that America has always had an undemocratic, exploitative and oppressive system is undermined by the fact that the majority of Americans basically support the system. In Zinn there’s a kind of condescension, and a refusal to recognise the gains that the left has made. Even though Zinn was influenced by Marx he’s much more simplistic and reductionist than Marx. Marx understood that capitalism was improving living standards, for example. My goal was to provide a balance sheet for the American left – to explain the significance of the left in US history . I think it has been significant, but a lot of scholarship is partial and emphasises socialism rather than the broader American left that I talk about in the book, which starts with the abolitionists and ends with the solidarity movements of the 1980s. The American left is broader than just socialism. It’s full of people who were successful in their aims."